What Matt Barone Sees……You Get

Opening today is Antoine Fuqua’s Brooklyn’s Finest, a film I’ve been heavily anticipating since it made waves back in January 2009 at the Sundance Film Festival. Though the reviews from that fest were mixed, I latched on to the word that the picture is brutally dark, and had a downbeat and polarizing ending. I say ‘had” because I’m pretty sure they went back and changed the coda after that response. I could be wrong, though, since the conclusion I saw wasn’t even close to being marginal; it’s outright grim.

Over at Reel Loop, I’ve written my thoughts down into a review. Give it a look, eh?:

I owe it to myself and to my few but loyal readers to scribe a full-on Shutter Island reaction, one that gushes with praise while defending Martin Scorcese’s admirable decision to totally indulge in his lifelong cinema geekery, on some Quentin Tarantino ish. That piece is being written in my head, and will hopefully make its way onto this here blog in the near days to come. Just have to bang through a wall of other stories that need proper attention.

In the meantime, I feel it’s only right that I post a numero dos for Score Settling: Shutter Island, this time singling out my personal favorite musical composition used in the film, the ditty that rose above all the other dynamite stretches of audible boom. It’s called “Root of an Unfocus,” and the composer is one Boris Berman. This creeps into the film during two choice scenes, the first one standing out as a chilling highlight: Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) enters a distorted, nightmarish dream-state, after a migraine attack sends him onto a cot. In this slumber-terror, he’s slowly walking through a walking creepshow, first seeing a dead little girl’s eyes pop open, then pow-wowing with the arsonist responsible for killing his wife, and finally aiding a three-time child killer. Boris Berman’s work, an off-putting series of sonic raindrops, sets the scene to goosebumping degree.

Hear for yourself (if you’ve yet to see the film, or just want to revisit this gem of a score), after the jump: Continue Reading »

Because I’ve chatted with a handful of women lately who’ve, much to my dismay, sung the praises of those Twilight novels. And then, I’m all like, “Have you heard of Let the Right One In? Since you said you love vampires and all,” and they’re all like, “Nope, sorry.” Where’s Col. Hans Landa when you really need him?

As the release of Shutter Island rapidly approaches, concluding a marathon of anticipation around these parts, I’ve been working on some related posts for my colleagues over at Reel Loop. The first is today’s feature, ‘Six Book-To-Film Adaptations That Hollywood Needs to Make Happen,’ comprised of novels I love and think would translate well on the big screen. For added measure, I’ve also made some suggestions on how said projects should move forward, if any or all get that chance one day.

Give it a look, and let me know what books YOU’D love to see turned into feature-length flicks.

It feels like eons since I’ve last posted here. Between my fiction-writing pursuits that dominate my time at night, my daily actual-job duties and the recent uprising of my Reel Loop film news writing, poor Theater Of Mine has been neglected. But that’s about to change, as I’m hoping to revitalize this here blog, for the scarce few that happen across on occasion. I’m also pondering an idea that would introduce some amounts of original fiction here, as well as finally abandoning that “wordpress” in the site’s URL. Time is of the essence.

What better way to kickstart a new round of TOM posting than with a Shutter Island-related entry? Martin Scorcese’s latest, for those aware of my tastes and quirks, has been my personal Holy Grail for going on about a year or so now; I adore Dennis Lehane’s novel, and every piece of pre-release swag I’ve seen or read for the film has left me enthralled. There’s no doubt that a Thursday February 18th midnight showing is in my future.

This morning, I read a short but sweet New York Times profile on Sir Scorcese, and one of its finer points was a discussion of the music used in Shutter Island. It’s a good read, so give it a look. Amongst the classical talents revisited for the film’s soundtrack is Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, whose “Passacaglia” is cited by Scorcese as a perfect musical encapsulation of Teddy Daniels’s (the main character played by Leonardo Dicpario) crumbling, tortured psyche. And, naturally, the track is of top quality, and has me even more excited. Precisely the tone I love to hear in movies. Listen to “Passacaglia” after the jump: Continue Reading »